Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Gospel is Not Right Wing or Left Wing

Currently, John Piper's new book 'Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian', is blowing me away. In it, Piper deals with the issue of racism and how the Gospel transforms racial relations and restores ethnic harmony. There is a lot more to be said there, but nonetheless, this book has opened my eyes to just how big and glorious the Gospel is, and just how negligent I can be regarding how the Gospel impacts my relationships with people and the pursuit of justice.

One section in particular that I found interesting was on the Gospel and politics. It the tendency of many Christians to pursue equality, justice or racial reconciliation through the ideology of a certain political party. Right wing or left politics aren't the answer to social justice. The Gospel is. I think many Christians make a huge error of trying to associate their political party with Christianity, as if one is more aligned with the Christian message. Piper writes,

"Because the gospel of Jesus Christ is not an ideology or a philosophy or a methodology or a therapy but a supernatural in-breaking of God into our lives, I am concerned at how many Christians do not bring it to bear personally, critically, and explosively on the political right and left. It seems to me that too many Christians gravitate to right-wing or left-wing politics because they see some parallel between a political plank and a part of the gospel. It's like saying that the party that uses candles must be the true one because they're shaped like sticks of gospel dynamite. The gospel was meant to explode with saving power in the lives of politicians and social activists, not help them decorate their social agenda.

Jesus did not come into the world to endorse anybody's platform. He doesn't fit in. He created the world. He holds it in being by his powerful word. He will return some day to judge the living and the dead. And he came the first time to die so that left-wing activists and right-wing talk-show hosts would be broken in pieces for their sin and put back together by the power of grace. He came so that from that day on Jesus himself would be the supreme treasure and authority of our lives. He came so that we would become radically devoted to the glory of God. He came so that the only kind of racial diversity and racial harmony we would pursue is Jesus-exalting, God-glorifying, and gospel formed."